Theme Of Training Day

5 Pages 1209 Words

Theme of Training Day
Since its inception in the 1900s, film has used underlying themes, issues hidden underneath what the movie is actually about, to try to get certain points across to viewers. These themes may cause us to evaluate the lives that we lead and in what way exactly we can change our lives so that we can become better people. Training Day is one such movie that has an underlying theme that in some way may help a few of use to change how we live our lives. It is also a movie that may want us to attempt to do something to change our society. Training Day teaches us that when you allow your life to be taken over by greed or corruption, you are causing your own destruction.
One way in which the theme of Training Day could be corruption leading to a downfall is that fact that Alonzo, played by Denzel Washington and the bad cop of the movie, was a good cop when he first started out as a rookie. However with more experience and exposure to how the streets really operated, Alonzo slowly went onto a corruptive path. To prove this, in one scene of the movie Alonzo admits to Jake Hoyt, the rookie cop played by Ethan Hawke, that when he first started out as a cop he was good and believed in following all the rules. He then admitted that he realized that in order for him to achieve certain accomplishments and to make his way up to a detective, he would have to do things that may cause him to cross the line that police officers are to abide by, while enforcing the law. Alonzo may have also learned from some of the other veteran cops who may have been corrupt.
Another way in which the theme of Training Day could be corruption leading to a downfall is displayed by the way in which Alonzo went about doing his job. For example, he would pay off some of the neighborhood gang members to kill someone who got in the way or caused any kind of disturbance in any of his operations. One scene that illustrates this is the sequence w...